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Ancient Era: The Transcendent Mandate
The earliest history of Known Space began in the apocryphal time of the Ancient Era. During the Ancient Era, Known Space was governed by an aloof species known as the Ur. This godlike species possessed immense psychic power and near-immortality which they used to govern the many races of the galaxy that we know today. The Ur would rule in accordance with their dogmatic religion, roughly translated as the Transcendent Mandate. The Mandate was a hierarchal faith which emphasized the primacy of all psychic beings. According to their dogma, psychic beings could transcend to a higher plane of existence through mastery of The Way. Based upon what remains of Mandate texts, few if ever could achieve such a lofty and supernatural exit from reality, and it is theorized that The Way served as little more than a striving principle for their religion and civilization. The Ur in many ways owed their existence to their faith. Without the Mandate to bind them, the otherwise fractious beings would have waged war upon one another. Worse, without the Mandate to unify them the Ur would have explored forbidden science to discover a competitive edge over their rivals. The highest powers within the Mandate foresaw the grave peril that accompanied such warfare and scientific inquiry. Consequently, they enforced a strict non-aggression pact while also forbidding many fields of research which subsequently prevented the Ur from fully leveraging their position as a Type 1 civilization. The Ur, for instance, strictly avoided research into machine learning and automation as they had clairvoyant reasons to believe it would lead to a downfall for their species. Instead, the Ur devised a convoluted but effective system of bio-neural cogitation which possessed a psychic profile that they could manipulate like any other lifeform. This would prevent any "runaway" AI from acting against the interests of their species. Similarly, the Ur avoided the construction of traditional tools, weapons and industries as they believed such devices could be used against them by the Lesser Beings. 'According to the hierarchy of the Mandate, beings which could not manifest psychic phenomenon were considered Lesser Beings and as such were not afforded autonomy. It was the duty of all Lesser Beings to serve a ruling caste of psychics from their own species ('Ascendants) who, in turn, would follow the orders given to them by the Ur (Superiors). Instead of traditional devices the Ur took great pains to devise psychically catalyzed tools and weaponry. This was a deliberate attempt to keep dangerous and effective tools out of the hands of the Lesser Beings. Without psychic potential many Ur devices simply would not function. What remains of these artifacts in the present day are referred to as "archeotech". Archeotech is highly sought after (and highly illegal to possess) as the functions and designs are not yet fully understood by modern science. Despite their religious restrictions the Ur were a spacefaring species that spanned the galaxy through a spiderweb of Warpgates and shortrange FTL vessels. They constructed these vessels and warpgates to conserve energy despite being capable of surviving and traveling in the vacuum. Indeed, the Ur were religiously extolled to unite the galaxy under the authority of the Mandate and as such all means were explored to bring the galaxy within their grasp. Non-adherence to expanding the Mandate was considered heresy and was met with extreme punishment. The Ur utilized Lesser Beings as laborers, playthings, and vanity projects. The godlike Ur delighted in experimenting upon the populaces of the worlds they governed and often used civilizations as experiments to prove points to their rival Ur. One rule, however, was ironclad and enforced by the Mandate: Lesser Beings were forbidden from traveling the stars. Exploration and colonization were forbidden during this time to Lesser Beings. In contrast, the Ascendants were allowed limited FTL autonomy. These marked the earliest attempts at colonization by the species of Known Space. It is worth noting, however, that the Ur strictly policed their Ascendants and carefully monitored their movements. Culturally, the Mandate preferred the galaxy to remain unspoiled and only allowed offworld colonies to serve as temples or monasteries that were useful to the Mandate's cause. The Ur would wind up extinct following a cataclysmic event known to history as The Scream. In their wake, the psychics among the Lesser Beings, the Ascendants, reformed the Mandate under their rule in the Age of Ascendancy.